Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community
skip navigationCommentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community.
Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community.
Today, the BBC news, technology section, released an article entitled Universal avatars bestride worlds" It seems that IBM and Linden Lab are working on a way to allow avatars created in one virtual word to travel to another virtual world.
It is going to happen anyway," said Colin Parris, IBM vice president of digital convergence in a statement. "If you think you are walled and secure, somebody will create something that's open and then people will drain themselves away as fast as possible," he told the Reuters news agency.
I’d have to say that although I don’t care for Mr. Parris’ drain analogy, I do believe he’s correct in that it’s necessary for both game design and academic communities to continually challenge assumptions about the way virtual worlds are created. However, it’s important not to forget some of the interesting work Psychology and Sociology has done in the study of how we create virtual identities.
I'm writing my dissertation on WoW, and my recent work has been on race in this game: both the ways the game's design depicts race, and the ways that players respond to that design. Right now I'm working on the latter, and I've noticed a funny trend in the way that WoW players talk about race: when they're talking about their own racial identities and bigotries, they tend to substitute in-game races for real-life races. Here are a couple of examples.
About a year ago, I witnessed the following conversation between two members of my guild:
Mehet: YOU dont EvEN know who I be
Killa: nope, u don't know who i be
Mehet: I KNOW who u be
Killa: who do I be?
Mehet: Zingo [the name of Killa's main character]
Let me preface this blog by saying that I thought very carefully about whether to post this at all. I'm not clear of the legal ramifications of blogging about this, but ultimately I decided that whatever action does come of the following, it affects the gameology community (which, by reading this, you are a part of), so it make sense to bring it before you all to see what you think.
If you've been following this blog for a while, you've probably seen that we've posted some rather critical remarks on the game Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Of course, we are far from alone in our criticism and are, in my opinion, far less harsh than some other reviews I've read. We're also a pretty small fish in a very large pond. Still, we're apparently on Troy Lyndon's radar as critics of his game because they've hit us with PR-spam here and here. On Monday, they escalated their response by sending me a nastygram threatening me with legal action unless I remove "false and misleading" comments from this website. The full text of their letter appears below.
With Halloween coming up soon (or at least it seems to be with store shelves are already stocked with Halloween candy), are there any interesting ARGs related to Googlegängers? Most of the information I've found on Googlegängers (by using Google no less) seems to deal with people's confusion, frustration, or amusement at finding their same-name virtual doppelgänger. I know I'm always hoping to overtake the real Laurie Taylor on Google rankings. To me, the real one is the one who's more often higher on a Google Search--in my case, the one who works for the BBC. I'm also always hoping the bad one--who wanted books banned--will drop out of Google listings (latest news on that one is from 2005, but it's still on the first page of results). A great ARG could focus on finding one's Googlegänger, maybe just trying to beat them in Google rankings, or something else.
The group of grad students at UF that originally gave rise to this blog, the Game Studies Group, has been rebranded as the Digital Assembly (DA), and we had our monthly meeting on Friday. Our readings were the introduction to Gerard Genette's Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation and Georg Stanitzek's "Texts and Paratexts in Media" (Critical Inquiry 32.1). What we discussed, in a somewhat circuitous way, was how our various projects can or cannot be described in Genette's terminology, and ultimately whether or not paratext is a useful concept for studying media other than books. It was an interesting conversation, and I've had a few more thoughts. I'd like to keep the conversation going, so feel free to jump in.
Genette's defines "paratext" as the text's threshold, vestibule, or edge. Not part of the text, but necessary to it, assuring authorial control of the text by providing readers a sanctioned entry point. In general, paratexts include things like a book's title, typography, preface, pagination, etc. Moreover, paratexts can be further divided into "epitexts" and "peritexts", distinguished by their spatial relationship with the book (and Genette makes it clear that he is writing of books) such that epitexts are materials published elsewhere (e.g., James Joyce's road map for Ulysses), and peritexts are materially part of the same substance as the text (e.g., chapter titles).
Media Commons has an excellent ongoing project called In Media Res wherein media scholars post short videos with introductory statements meant to engage the community in conversation.
It is not only a really interesting twist on academic discussion, but a great way to gain exposure to the various projects people are working, as well as potentially get some preliminary feedback on your own project.
I have a machinima video and short write-up there this week that I am using in a current paper and would love to get some feedback and thoughts on it from the Gameology staff and readers.
The DIGRA mailing list recently hosted a very interesting discussion on the use (and relevant laws in various countries) of images from videogames in academic work - a good suggestion was that DIGRA should lobby the industry to allow reproductions of visuals. Given that a number of Gameology contributors and visitors are writing theses or articles, and given that videogames are such a highly visual form, I was wondering just how people are using screenshots or video footage in their written work? Is anyone submitting a video component, perhaps a CD with footage taken from a gameplay session? Maybe some links to Quake Done Quick or Garry's Mod on YouTube? How appropriate is that for a formal piece of academic output such as a thesis? Do you include things like level or stage where appropriate in citing such things?
Google just announced that they've added presentations to Google Docs. While there are already other places that allow for shared presentations, this is a bonus because it's easy to use (after all, it's Google so most folks have logins and the interface design is simple and elegant, and consistent so it'll be extra easy). Presentations, of all documents, should be online and shared since that's intrinsic to their use and was only prevented before as a technical limitation (needing online access or file size) or a ease-of-use limitation.
The Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in digital media studies to begin Fall 2008. We seek an individual with expertise in critical approaches to digital media to join an innovative, interdisciplinary program that includes media studies, ethnography and performance studies, and rhetoric and public culture. While we invite candidates from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, we encourage applicants involved in research on the cultural, political, and communicative aspects of online games and in the broader field of digital game studies. Research may involve the formal qualities of digital games, their social and political dimensions, as well as questions of genre, narrative, and history. Applicants should be prepared to discuss the role that digital media play in shaping perceptions of history and culture, in forging individual and collective identities, and in mediating social change. Applicants are expected to have a strong research agenda and a commitment to excellence in teaching. Preference will be given to candidates who have their Ph.D. in hand by the date of appointment.
I'm wondering if the general quiet on Gameology is a result of the new fall semester or because time is being spent preparing the job market. For anyone facing the job market and all of its real implications (and almost mythic buildup), Printculture offers some great MLA job-market and interview advice and great thoughts on MLA in general.
If the general quiet is due to job market preparation, are there any other useful references that people would recommend for those on the market?
Or, does anyone have other exciting news to share, perhaps some rather exciting work, like new publications or preparations for Talk Like a Pirate Day?
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